Category: Interview Series

r. James Boswell, editor at wall of controversy here on WordPress, has kindly agreed to accept an invitation to take part in our recently initiated interview series. Mr. Boswell is the 9th person thus far to generously share their perceptions in response to five fundamental questions we pose by way of an interview format. His distinct and remarkable set of insights builds upon, and shares the qualitative aspect with, those eight men and women preceding him in the series: that of provoking deeper, broader, and creative thinking on the varied ways human beings have perceived life on Earth.

Thank you James Boswell for sharing your unique and valuable perceptions, found in the following words.

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Question 1: What was your primary motivation for entering the world of blogging – the internet?

The brief answer is that after years of insouciance following the end of the Cold War, I had a rude awakening upon realising where we were actually heading: the perpetual wars, the rise in surveillance, the hardening of the police state, allied to a correspondent immiseration of our already fractured and terribly unequal Western societies. After the initial trauma (trauma is really no exaggeration), I felt the need to speak out and the internet provided a platform. This is half of the story.

The other half is that I had been in the midst of writing a book when a friend suggested posting up chapters by way of a blog. Purely as a test run we set up a WordPress website and uploaded a short travelogue about my adventures in Tanzania. I kept the travelogue and began adding articles about current affairs and this is how the blog steadily evolved. Eight years on, the book (a quirky, stream-of-consciousness treatise on life, the universe and making things better!) remains a work in progress, and though some of its chapters have since been uploaded, I devoted my spare time instead to expanding the main content of the blog, which is journalistic, since this seemed a far more urgent project.

Question 2: How would you describe yourself with regard to spirituality?

Throughout most of my youth I was an ardent atheist. At university I studied physics and this early venture into hard science was no doubt an unconscious bid to prove the solid existential truth of a godless and soulless universe. It never occurred to me there might be viable alternatives to the bleak materialist worldview I had embraced. Metaphysics, I once joked (playing on a line from John Lennon), was just Greek for codswallop. But jokes of this kind were lame attempts to laugh off an unspoken dread.

Although belief in secular materialism (and it is a belief) means contemplation of the abyss, this seemingly courageous act deliberately avoids a worse terror waiting patiently beneath in the form of more astonishing depths of an ultimately unknowable unknown. After all, it is not the lack of light that makes anyone afraid of the dark, but what might be lurking unseen. And so, as with any adopted religious creed, atheism provided me with solace by chasing the darkness away. Yet this felt like a cheat, because it is one. The fact is that all suppositions of ultimate truth – whether comparatively sophisticated or otherwise – obstruct your worldview and cloud your judgment.

Spirituality is a funny word, however, and claiming to be “a spiritual person” always sounds a bit naff to me. What it means, I think, is that you have a religious longing (a god-shaped hole) but that religion has such a diabolical reputation, justifiably so, that you need to distance yourself from anything so moralising, so authoritarian, and so drenched in superstition. All these aspects of orthodox religion I detest of course and also find similar self-righteousness lingering in so many corners of the self-declared “new age” along with bountiful helpings of alternative mumbo jumbo.

Nevertheless, these days I am happier to say I am ‘spiritual’ (or even ‘religious’ – why should labels matter much?) if only because I no longer cling to the reductionist dogmas of scientific materialism. It is perhaps truer to say I’m a confessed agnostic! Appreciation of the wonder of life and the wider mystery of existence is more straightforward once the limits to human comprehension are firmly acknowledged. I might even venture so far as to say that I have a modicum of faith, but faith in what exactly?

This is such a huge and involved question that I am tempted to stop there. The greater half of the world’s finest literature devotes itself to matters of this kind, and effing the ineffable is the province of the great poets and other artists. But I will add just one last (albeit extended) point about an often overlooked aspect of ‘spirituality’ and how it relates to self-awareness.

Most of us go about our daily lives thoughtlessly presuming we possess autonomous free will. We presume indeed that all humans and possibly other creatures possess the same freedom to think and act at will. That is, we ordinarily presume we are not total zombies. This is an everyday act of faith. It is also the root to anything we might ever describe as ‘spirituality’.

Science sidelines free will as ‘a perception’; as if it doesn’t actually exist. Hard-boiled scientism goes so far as to actually deny the possibility of free will outright. Yet those who solemnly subscribe to this surprising opinion do not refrain from casting their own moral judgements. They congratulate, chastise and even punish behaviour (their own included) that is purportedly predetermined – I suppose praise and punishment do aid in the reprogramming of future behaviour!

The point is that we overlook many such minor everyday miracles. A whole gaggle of academic disciplines, taking their lead from science (which merely ignores the so-called “hard problem” of consciousness out of convenience), will tie themselves in knots by rejecting its priority. Surely it makes far better sense to celebrate consciousness and free will. Consciousness is the most blatantly obvious faculty distinguishing human beings from viruses, bricks and plastic waste. (Being merely “a carbon-based life form” just doesn’t cut the mustard!)

Without consciousness there would be no science; no world that is ever experienced. And being free agents makes us the architects of our own destinies. It also means accepting responsibility for what we do and don’t do. The Golden Rule is its unavoidable corollary. But then without kindness and respect for fellow creatures, claims to being “a spiritual person” are very hollow ones in any case. When the poet Philip Larkin realised he had accidentally killed a hedgehog after mowing the lawn he wrote “Of each other, we should be kind/ While there is still time.” In one sense there is nothing more spiritual than Larkin’s heartfelt sentiment.

So I suppose the problem with lofty words like ‘spirituality’ is that they have a tendency distract us. They carry us outwards toward the heavens or else inwards to contemplate our navels and this rather misses the point. The point itself is eternally here and now and often deceptively mundane.

Question 3: What were some of the most memorable transforming points across the years (world events, books, personal contacts, mystical experiences, etc.) in the developing of your current spiritual perspective?

Some of this background is already told above although I have forgotten to mention how my doubts about secular materialism were first seeded by two very close undergraduate friends; one of whom today works as a professor at CERN. Although both are physicists too, these friends are also Christians of different Protestant denominations. The coup de grace, however, came a little later, and mostly thanks to a poet and self-described pagan anarchist who I met as a postgraduate, and who introduced me to the joys of reading as well as to completely unfamiliar modes of thinking and being.

We soon embarked on a sort of spiritual journey together, which happened for many reasons, not least of which my friend’s scholarly interest in Jung and his consonant fascination with dreams. Regarding shared adventures, the term ‘mystical’ is befitting of more than a few occasions, the lasting effect of these remarkable experiences greatly amplified by a growing interest in literature on the subject. The strange collision of otherwise tangential life trajectories has always seemed fated to me. The friendship remains a cherished one.

It is a terrible cliché to include Aldous Huxley among any list of authors who helped to shape one’s spiritual outlook, but I must add his name because for a decade at least I read his works over and over. Later I became obsessed with Alan Watts (another cliché!). In between I began reading some of the canonical texts of the non-Abrahamic faiths and eastern philosophies. The traditional writings that still inspire me today are mostly those from Daoism and Zen Buddhist (sorry to be so predictable). Other significant influences include the poetry of Blake and Eliot; the visionary films of Tarkovsky; and more philosophical works such as, for instance, a lesser known book by psychologist and pragmatist philosopher, William James, titled “The Varieties of Religious Experience”. In this book, James distils the most concise and straightforward account of why atheism is unsatisfactory that I have read. His great advantage is that he writes as a genuine agnostic.

Question 4: What is your greatest wish for readers as a consequence after reading and considering your writings?

As a writer, the prime motivation is always a hope somehow to impel readers to think new thoughts. On the blog, where writing is largely journalistic, my general aim is simply to correct widespread falsehoods and to challenge received opinion, whether by appealing to reason or to the reader’s conscience. In fact the strapline to my website is “the other side of the story” and this is what I have consistently tried to present whilst taking pains to ensure that all stated facts are established ones and these are comprehensively referenced. The MSM generally misleads the public by omission more than anything else and so one of my lasting objectives has been to join up the dots from mainstream sources.

I am entirely candid about my own leftist political persuasion although very often I hope to write for people who have a different political outlook from my own. Party political conversion has never been a conscious aim, but it would be disingenuous to deny any wish to shift the readers’ political awareness in more fundamental ways. And it is nice to think that a few visitors to my site will take as much trouble considering why they disagree with me or else chasing down relevant facts that contradict the ones supporting my argument, as I did when writing it. Polite comments are always gratefully received even if I don’t reply.

Question 5: Can you offer any advice to people having a difficult time dealing with government and media lies, especially as it pertains to so many average citizens who hold erroneous perceptions on important events and situations around the Earth?

Aldous Huxley was fond of imagining that rather than windows open to the world, our senses instead operated as filters that narrowed the bandwidth on what we might perceive. I remain unsure of whether this notion carries much validity even in the mystical sense he intended, but it certainly provides an elegant metaphor for the role of the media, which ought to be society’s eyes and ears but instead provides a valve that inhibits the flow of too much dangerous information. This should not surprise us. After all the press isn’t free but bought and paid for a thousand times (to quote Gore Vidal). And the internet, once a refuge for genuinely independent journalism, is now undergoing a rapid shutdown as I write this. The gatekeepers on this occasion are the tech giants. For all its faults (the propaganda, misinformation and blind hatred that will always be the greater part of any truly open media platform) we should organise to save net neutrality before the internet becomes nothing more than a vast shopping mall and surveillance hub.

More personally, as my own worldview split away from the permitted mainstream narrative, I found that the instinctual refusal to let matters rest was having detrimental effects on my happiness and even my health. Not only was this leading me into a pit of my own despair but I was suddenly falling out with family and friends, and, as this vicious circle intensified, I felt more isolated and disempowered than ever. The blog turned out to be a godsend. It provided an invaluable outlet for expressing otherwise pent up fear and rage. Perhaps more curiously, the process of writing was enabling me to better handle my justified anxieties about the future. Trite as it sounds: action can indeed conquer fear.

One answer to your question therefore, maybe the most direct advice I can offer for anyone struggling on a psychological level, is to engage more directly in the fight against your oppressors. Participate actively in a pressure group for a cause you wholeheartedly believe in. Or organise a new campaign group. Meanwhile, those of us who are happier sat behind a desk might use this small and tightening window of opportunity provided by the internet to get our message out. Importantly, it is not that one person’s actions will change the world (of course to some degree all actions do), but that you are able to find a way to stop the world adversely changing you.

One last thought is this: if after scrupulous research, certain of the facts (facts you have independently verified so far as possible), you arrive at a position that is in direct contradiction to received mainstream opinion, it is better not to use your new found knowledge to assail unwitting opponents. The temptation to spread the message can be a forceful one, and the sense of urgency is often extreme. But it is disrespectful to force unpalatable truths on people ill-prepared to receive them. Rattling their cage will not release them from it. On the other hand, when challenged on the matter in question we should always try to hold firm to the facts. “When the truth is replaced by silence,” wrote the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, “the silence is a lie.” I thank John Pilger for providing the quote, the finest investigative journalist alive today.

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r. Ray Cormier, editor at The Word – Ray Joseph Cormier here on WordPress, has kindly accepted an invitation to take part in our recently begun interview series. Mr. Cormier has a unique personal perspective as have all previous interviewees, adding for readers a valuable contrast, and at the same time broadening the series’ diverse spectrum of worldviews as related to experienced events.

Thank you, Ray, for generously sharing your life experiences and insights, found in the following words.

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Question 1.) What was your primary motivation for entering the world of blogging on the worldwide web – the internet?

And more than they, my son, beware; making many books has no end, and studying much is a weariness of the flesh.-Ecclesiastes12:12

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. -John 21:25

There is no question the Internet is the marvel of our Age.There is no longer an excuse to say ,”I didn’t know.” My Blog is my ‘Book’ in the Spirit of the Bible verses above

I was a Star Trek devotee in the 60s. It was so Civilized. The “communicator” was only a fantasy, but now they are real with cell phone communicators. Unfortunately, we have smart phones but dumb people in the sense of not speaking up about the unfolding events in this World. I was so impressed with the technology when Captain Kirk said, ‘On Screen’ and there were visuals from anywhere in Space. Now we have Skype connecting everybody on Earth.

I would imagine the primary motivation for anyone entering the world of Blogging is to share their thoughts and visions of what they see in this world, and what they would like to see.

For me, part of the reason is to make people aware of this Public Record from 41 years ago.

These are excerpts from the article as I saw then, and see unfolding in the bigger world Today. There is an explicit Future Time-date in the article that came True in March 1979 as recorded in the 1976 record

It’s taken over 40 years, but that 1976 FUTURE is NOW, with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter. The World is finally waking up to see Trump just may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Public record. Fire and Fury like this world has never seen before may be another promise Trump will keep?

Any way you look at it, that HISTORICAL FACT is a confirming SIGN for our Generations, the World has arrived at the point of Decision, of an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a war with Russia.” ‘Multitudes! Multitudes in the Valley of Decision. The Day of the LORD IS NEAR in the Valley of Decision.’

Not too many will recognize, “this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered” as the 1st two parts, of the 3 part ‘Writing on the Wall” from Daniel 5 and the Captivity of Babylon some 2600 years ago. The whole world saw The Writing on the Wall for the 1st TIME at the same TIME, with the Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour in September of 2008, even if the world does not recognize it as such.

The 3rd part of the Writing on the Wall tells of the decline of Babylon, the 1st Biblical model of the Nation that reaches Imperial Military-Economic Superpower Status, and the rise of Persia

Ancient Babylon is now Iraq, and ancient Persia is now Iran.

The US is the latest, greatest of all the Nations reaching Imperial Military-Economic Superpower Status in the 2600 year old Biblical Babylonian superstructure.

The TAIL struck the HEAD, causing the unravelling of the Earthly Babylonian superstructure/infrastructure in violation of International Law, undermining the Global Order in place since WWII, ushering in the Law of the Jungle to the Middle East and this World.

The Iranian Revolution happened in 1979, 2-1/2 years after the record in the 1976 KANSAS CITY TIMES Timeline.

All the chaos in the Middle East since then, including the carnage in Syria, is the consequence of the vain attempt to reverse that God ordained, repeat of History, as a SIGN for our Generations.

The Trump government has announced to the world, the next target for regime change by the US is Iran. Trump is following the same US WAR PLANS brought out weeks after 9/11, to change regimes in Iraq, Libya, Syria and finally, Iran.

Republican Bush did Iraq, Democrat Obama did Libya and attempted regime change in Syria, and now Trump, is going after Iran leading to the END game of those 2001 US War Plans. At a minimum, this is circumstantial evidence there really is a DEEP STATE pulling the strings behind the Republican-Democratic-Trumpian facade?

Obviously, I personally, had nothing to do with the larger, real world GENERALLY unfolding along the lines of that 1976 letter other than being a Messenger in the right place at the right Time. I cannot boast about it, except to point out the Historical FACTS. It does not make me better, superior or any more special than any other having a True Faith in God. The FACTS above are independently verifiable along the Timeline since September 13, 1976. I thank God I’m still alive in my 74th year and via the Internet, point to the record which is evidence God lives!

Question 2: How would you describe yourself with regard to spirituality?

Brought up as a Catholic in French Quebec, the Church had much more influence and control in the Culture that it has now. Because it was something you had to do, the every Sunday Catholic mass had crowds overflowing into the street. I recall the Church was able to stop Elvis Presley from performing in Quebec, because his sensual hip movements were not acceptable to be seen by the People. Ed Sullivan did the same thing.

I had a child’s love for Jesus, the Bible being the 1st Book I read form cover to cover when I learned how to read. Jesus was my Hero. But then I discovered the sexuality God designed and made part of the human experience in the human body.

Catholics have to confess their sins to the Priest and I had to confess how many times ‘I played with myself’ the only activity I engaged in called a sin I knew of in my younger years. The number varied from week to week, and the punishment was always the same, 10 Our Fathers and 10 Hail Marys. A Priest never molested me, but as I got older, and started playing with others, I confessed that sin as ‘committing an impure act with another person.’ As far as I was concerned, the Priest knew what I was confessing. I took offence when they started asking for graphic and explicit descriptions of what happened in bed and that was none of his business. I left the Church.

While the basic Christian Value of ‘treating others as I loved myself’ was ingrained in my personality, I never thought of God as I got into the world system. I was dead to God, and God was Dead to me. I felt no need since at the age of 24, with company car and expense account to wine and dine, the money I was making then, accounting for inflation, would buy the stuff requiring $170,000 in Today’s Dollars.

At 29, my Business Card read, “National Marketing Representative, Mining Division, Dominion Engineering Works Ltd. of Montreal. It was all title, and no substance. A Canadian Mining Company was not going to pay $150,000 for the manufactured machines and pay Canadian workers $30 in salary, benefits and taxes, when they could go offshore and pay workers $5 a Day with no benefits or environmental costs. The mineral could be imported put next door to a Canadian Mine for less than that Canadian mine could get it out of the ground. The export Market was booming, and I was relegated to preparing Proposals for Export. I could see in 1974, if that was already happening to heavy manufacturing and Mining, it wouldn’t be long before other Domestic Manufacturing went the same way. This was before US-Canada Free Trade, NAFTA, and Globalization of the Economy. I quit the job.

The very next Day, February 1, 1975, when I was 29 going on 30 and I was ‘born again’ without looking for it. It was a totally unexpected surprise to me. With all I experienced in my Life before that Day, more than many, and less than others, I knew without a doubt, I came alive to the kingdom of heaven within me. ‘Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ -John 1:13 ‘And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20-21

This may be a long accounting leading to my spiritually after living a life in the flesh, but this is how I describe the beginning of it, trying to convey a spiritual experience through words made Flesh.

Sometimes I am a slow learner. Two years before I was able to identify what happened to me February 1, 1975 as coming alive to God, I did have a very vivid and powerful Dream, a premonition perhaps, but did not identify it as God, and did not start communion with God at that Time. That is described in the Blog article ‘I HAD A DREAM.‘

Question 3: What were some of the most memorable transforming points across the years (books, personal contacts, mystical experiences, etc.) in the developing of your current spiritual perspective?

Getting to this 3rd question, I probably answered a lot of it in the 2 previous questions. Obviously, reading the answer to the 1st question, I would pay much closer attention to the unfolding events in this world more than most people, except for those experts who are paid to study Global events. As to ‘mystical experiences, some of them are covered in the 1st question. My Blog article ‘THE IMPERIAL POPE‘ describes things that happened in my Life without exaggeration or embellishment that would be considered mystical at the very least.

Like any other Believer, after 42 years, my spirituality is still a work and Revelation in progress, Day by Day.

Question 4: What is your greatest wish for readers as a consequence after reading/considering your writings?

I can only hope with this Witness and Testimony, people will see I write about a Power much greater than I, Presidents, Prime ministers and Religious Leaders, and will start looking for God in their lives, and in the World. God will not force anyone to look for God. Those who seek will find. It may not be quick with the snap of the fingers, but with Faith and Patience, God will Reveal God to the sincere seekers. No one can be saved by me, the Pope, the Rabbis, the Ayatollahs or any Christian Evangelist. You can be saved only by Christ in YOU. ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ -Isaiah 1:18

Question 5: Can you offer any advice to people having a difficult time dealing with government and media lies, especially as it pertains to so many average citizens who hold erroneous perceptions on important events and situations around the Earth?

I wish I had a viable answer or advice to offer on this question. I am stumped like everyone else. Watching CNN & MSNBC, reading The Washington Post & The New York Times, I often see them as Propagandists for the Power, not speaking Truth to the Power. I often find myself shouting ‘liar’ at the TV, listening to some Politicians and the so called ‘experts’ subtly inciting for war with Russia. It’s working on American minds too in the new McCarthyism.

When the US, with it’s belief in it’s own exceptionalism, it’s incomprehensible to me how CNN & MSNBC is all Trump, anti-Russian, 24/7 for the last year, instead of informing Americans about the World the US thinks it has the right to control and conform to American interests and priorities. As this point, all I can do is write letters to Senators and Representatives, and comment in articles in The Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and many other online news sites – and pray to God.

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race Lara Hentz, editor of Lara Blog here on WordPress, has graciously accepted an invitation to participate in the new interview series we began recently. She offers an impressive, unique voice and perspective which readers will appreciate, and adds valuable perceptual contrast to the worldview spectrum compiled from the excellent contributions by previous guest interviewees.

Thank you Trace Lara Hentz for kindly sharing your insights, found in the following words.

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An Interview with Trace Lara Hentz (journalist-author-blogger)

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Question 1.) What was your primary motivation for entering the world of blogging on the worldwide web – the internet?

Thank you very much for this invitation.

In 2009, I joined the blogworld, first using Google Blogger. Experts say if you have a book, you must blog. Well good. That is great advice if you are a writer-author, but technically speaking, there are a million little things you won’t know about blogging until you have blogged awhile. Take sidebars and widgets, for example. That first blog: American Indian Adoptees [www.splitfeathers.blogspot.com] has hit ¾ million reads in 2017. And we’re in the top 100 adoption blogs. I’d say it’s because we are providing vital history, support and information to Native American and First Nations adoptees like myself. I found a niche and know my audience.

Soon after my book, I decided to try WordPress and I’m coming up on my 7th anniversary (January 2018) doing my Lara blog [www.laratracehentz.wordpress.com] for more serious writing. Time does fly. And I do blog experiments on blogger, just for fun. A few years ago I taught both blogger and WordPress at the local community college here in western Massachusetts, along with Social Media 101. They fit together like a glove. Sharing is important, as well as having good solid interesting information on your blog.

One thing I told my students is to blog/write once a week. More than that, you might get blogger-fatigue.

Question 2.) How would you describe yourself with regard to spirituality – what were some of the most memorable transforming points across the years (books, personal contacts, mystical experiences, etc.) in the developing of your current spiritual perspective?

In my early 20s, I embarked on a spiritual quest. Being adopted, for me, meant searching for people and answers. Over many years, I worked to reconnect and find relatives. Along the way, I’ve had meaningful experiences in ceremony, in the sweatlodge, doing purification before the Sundance in Rosebud, South Dakota in the 1990s. I studied with a Northern Cheyenne in Seattle prior to the ceremony, and he helped me with contacting the medicine man who was running it. You need permission to attend and you need to know what to expect, what to bring, etc. One of the most important things I learned: do not pray for yourself in the sweat. It’s not for me to say what I experienced, but it changed my life and improved my health. On that trip, I visited an Oglala Lakota family in Porcupine, SD, and soon became a relative (a member of their family). Sitting at Ellowyn’s kitchen table, I learned so many things, historic things, significant things, huge things, not found in any book.

The 90s were very big years for me. In Seattle where I was living, I met with a Face Reader who was Sikh. And my Kinesiologist-Herbalist was also a Sikh. Both men were healers, definitely, and both started healing the broken parts of me. I chose to do co-counseling (trauma therapy) for three years, which was transformative. The goal: tell your whole life story, in your own words, without holding back. It’s like an inner powder keg exploded. Since then I’ve studied herbal medicine and seek out holistic doctors for treatment. Even after all that personal growth, writing my memoir produced the biggest results in my mental health and outlook. The key is: “Know Thyself.”

The one book I recommend to everyone is John Fire Lame Deer Seeker of Visions. If you feel a need to understand Indian Country traditions, and the work of medicine men, particularly the Lakota Oyate (Nation), this is the book to read.

Question 3.) What is your greatest wish for readers as a consequence after reading and considering your writings?

My greatest wish is for those who read my blog is to be excited, and learn something new and unexpected. I share news from Indian Country, my perspective on being adopted, and I write and curate history and current events.

In case readers don’t know, it took me five long years to write my memoir, prior to my first blog. Good Grief! The one thing I had not fully realized with doing a memoir or biography, I needed to write in the first person and share my own story and the long search for my father. I was writing mostly Indian Country history in the book as a journalist. Then a literary agent read it and made recommendations. Writing friends told me similar. That started a major rewrite and a new process, while emotionally processing all of it. Writing can be a very healing thing, even writing on a blog, but it can also take you down a path you won’t expect. In those five years, I healed more than I ever dreamt possible.

Writing my first full-length book was synchronicity, very well-timed. After my memoir came out, I’ve done a four-part book series on the Lost Children of the Indian Adoption Projects, narratives from adoptees in North America and the 60s Scoop in Canada. And I have contributed to other books on the topic of adoption.

I hope that readers who visit my Lara blog will be glad to read about Indian Country. What is news-worthy to me might be news-worthy to you.

For those new to this blog world, as you blog, you will change and evolve. Remember, it’s your words and experience that people will want to read.

Question 4.) Can you offer any advice to people having a difficult time dealing with government and media lies, especially as it pertains to so many average citizens who hold erroneous perceptions on important events and situations around the Earth?

If 2017 feels like a beginning, 2018 will be even more so. Yup, hold onto your hat!

It is very apparent in 2017, this is a surreal time for many Americans. The Hopi and many tribes predicted this time would come. It is a very important time, in that we are waking up and seeing things in a whole new light, with some shock and outrage and fear thrown in. History (his-story) happens in cycles, so we need to learn world history, so we can see events happening today in a historical sense, and that way discern the truth from the lies. If we don’t discern, we are doomed to repeat until we do learn. I fully understand the constant news-cycle can be too much to handle… News might cause distress and bitter arguments among friends and family. That means we need to find new words, good words, better words, and to listen carefully.

I trained as a journalist in 1996 and took my first salaried job as an editor that year. Prior to that I freelanced and kept journals. Something I find most distressing today is so much history and world news is not taught in school, or included in history textbooks. There are huge chunks of history missing, mis-told, or told in a very biased, one-sided, colonized, misogynistic manner. Bloggers can change that, and I hope they will.

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(BIO) Known for her exceptional print interviews with influential Native Americans such as Leonard Peltier, John Trudell and Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Trace Lara Hentz (who legally dropped the name DeMeyer in 2014) started intensive research on adoptees in 2004. Her memoir ONE SMALL SACRIFICE is an exposé on the systematic removal of American Indian children from their mothers, families and tribes for adoption into non-Indian families while she weaves in her own personal story. Her adoptee journey takes her around the country, finally meeting her birthfather in 1994 and learning about her mixed ancestry (Cherokee-Shawnee-Delaware-French Canadian.) Trace is former editor of tribal newspapers the Pequot Times and Ojibwe Akiing. She has contributed to adoption anthologies: Lost Daughters, Adoption Reunion in the Age of Social Media, and Adoptionland: From Orphans to Activists. In 2013, she was co-editor of the anthology Unraveling the Spreading Cloth of Time: Indigenous Thoughts Concerning the Universe with MariJo Moore. She is currently writing history with her cousin Dr. Charles Bland on one of their cousins Dr. Thomas Augustus Bland, editor of Council Fire, and a friend of Red Cloud and Sitting Bull.

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ark from Truthscoop.net here on WordPress has kindly accepted an invitation to take part in our recently initiated interview series. Thank you to one of the series’ interviewees, S. Awan, for generously going out of your way in contacting Mark. And thank you, Mark, for sharing your insights in the following words.

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Mark
Truthscoop.netQuestion 1: What was your primary motivation for entering the world of blogging – the internet?

‘Waking up’ and reading/watching so-called, alternative news and commentary, led to commenting. Came out of any pretend-closet. Made knowing about – call it – conspiracy roots and shoots, easier to cope with. Before this, sought to tell the multitudes in a hip side of London, about the alarm and distress in our midst. Got the message; rare interest, while rarer/if at all, active uptake. Began about seven years ago, don’t reckon much has changed. Now talk about here and there, rather than by default. Might signpost and say, search for “Truthscoop”.So here’s motivation? Makes easier to live and when communicating, in doing a DIY – something.

Inspired through an exchange of comments. On Crimes of Empire with the writer James Robertson. Offered to contribute to a post, over and above long comments. So here’s a big why: Encouraged to.

Through him, found Burning Blogger, who invited interested contributors. We corresponded. All in all, out came Truthscoop. Leave their names up to lend myself some well needed credibility.

‘Primary’ motivation is to avoid hypocrisy and exercise true hope. Rap on about each one teach one. “Have a go”. Can’t say we won’t, beat back the wretches. Something about hope, only legitimate, if exacts action. Can’t be hoping and sitting back. Invites, hope-less-ness.

Convinced mass-output in these closing-down-net times, all that might stop the gate shutting. While the internet itself has become a constructive/destructive paradox.

Motive is to stand on the front line with all truth-telling peacemakers.

Do another blog, a back to myself, onward/upwards, Jesus rant. Something to help process and stir-me-up. Potential on the prophetic front. Called, Plant a Seed.

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Question 2: How would you describe yourself with regard to spirituality? Christian. One that’s open to, and interested in, answers to the question you ask. Genuine to stand with those differing, not threatened or threatening.

Bit jump up apologetic about my self-definition and assert provisos. Generally gains a sigh of relief, from those might reveal to and discuss.

There are two Christian standpoints and a spectrum; Liberal and Evangelical. My particular mixture doesn’t invite fellowship from either camp. Within evangelicals, progressive lot, might be closest but they loath true-truth about politics. As with all Christians, shun me with blank disdain. Not that I stray on their lines/if at all and spout. No. Know my place.

One distinctive is being an Open Theist. One by-product is this puts end-times mapping and Zionism etc. to bed.

Am one of them insufferable Jesus fanatics. Hell to homosexuality – not traditional on.

Out to get you into God? – Yup.

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Question 3: What were some of the most memorable transforming points across the years (books, personal contacts, mystical experiences, etc.) in the developing of your current spiritual perspective?

Cor what a ? Go for a related overarching, transforming period. Waking up. Converted to truther talk. Profound developments. Got me to lose my nut. Go extra-strength bonkers. And so should we. Although healthier and better ways though, than my not-ones, are advisable. What this experience brought was a rejuvenation and rediscovery of a calling. Put the world in context. Gave me something to do.

Peeling back political charades and fakery, reality that-is, reveals the puppeteers aren’t materialists. Signs and evidence we have, places them ‘into’ the unseen. Take this as hopeful. Believing there are driving personality/forces, that need our compliance. A few praying women and men…

Know ‘someone’ who can help. Who offers some confident proposals.

So this, done me good. The worst of news, that’s still terrible and the suffering ain’t subsiding. But set me to work. While I do paid work part-time, moving into cheapo-cheapo living. A-coming faith for material provision, to pray far-as, full-time occupation. For some world-wide respite against tyrannical take over. Shaken up and better shaped pockets of new church. This too.

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Question 4: What is your greatest wish for readers as a consequence after reading and considering your writings?

Want to read some Bible. Talk to the air/could be God?And DIY on the blog front. Self-expression in and about the stuff we’re supposed to shut-up about. Sleep through. Once ding-dong awake: Type, snap, art, graph, turn the video-maker or mic on, put up/hand out…

One more blog etc. or vid channel at it, is worth a thousand thousand hits, on some big-alt-site.

Did one other blog before starting two years ago. In 2000. Called Jesus 2000. Worked in an internet co-op, only place online in Brixton UK. Few had home lines, even fewer with any speed. Tons and tons and tons of blogs coming out. Stopped mine after some days because it was all too indulgent – so concluded. Now on a completely different plea; “Be indulgent, be rubbish and will likely get better. Don’t care about comparing and don’t not, because.”

DIY is for all. For our self respect and health. If nout else.

These are great questions and any brevity is no disrespect or impatience to stop. It’s not wanting to “go on” too much, sensitive, being on the Jesus tip.

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Question 5: Can you offer any advice to people having a difficult time dealing with government and media lies, especially as it pertains to so many average citizens who hold erroneous perceptions on important events and situations around the Earth?

‘Having a difficult time’ indicates life over lies. Go “Hallelujah” or what e’er y’shout, in not going along, knowing not caring or looking. And/or denying. Be thankful, not into this self-induced, mental sickness. As things progress, being out there and open about the grand scams, is psychological prep. Will help. Have us more able to manage, whatever the other circumstances we face.

Don’t get fazed about the 99.99%. The no-takers about the world for real. This includes ones who say they ‘know’ but haven’t had/or aren’t, ‘having a difficult time’ of it. Knowing is about response over knowledge. Don’t expect looks and culture to determine who’s awake? Proper awake. Those who are… what, 1 in 1000 (or more), those who look concerned, want to know what can do, it matters.

Otherwise, they don’t-so get it, regardless of claiming do. Kiss and move on. At least on this score.

Hence, the need to warrior up and get out there, best can. Go online and scream some honesty. Get lucky and a mate in the local community, who shares your angst and cry together. Then wipe the tears and get feisty, rude and brave. Mean polite but rude, in brazen and emboldened. Lively up and all that, sing some Marley or something, and be the struggle to overcome.

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Peace

"The first peace, which is most important, is that which is found within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us."
BLACK ELK

Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms.. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

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